Inside Track – November 2017

Inside Track – November 2017

Aggregate data about income or consumption are no longer a true reflection of ‘average’ living conditions, as inequalities become skewed between top and bottom.

A flattening US yield curve (it was, earlier this month, at its flattest point in 10 years) is a warning sign.

Optimists must remember that China’s GDP doesn’t account for wasted investment. If this were properly written down, as Michael Pettis has argued, Chinese GDP growth would drop to as little as 3.

Last year, it was Panama – this year it’s Paradise. According to some reliable estimates, more than $7.6tr are deposited or hidden in tax havens around the world, including some 8% of all household financial wealth: a loss in annual global tax revenues of about $190bn.

The future for investors is not a binary choice between digital and analog, but about striking the right balance between the two.

There is increasing evidence that the crisis of attention caused by our digital devices is negatively impacting the economy (and the quality of our social interactions).